L.Y.S.Y.B.B. – (Lis See Bee Bee) another true story from Mitchell Kyd

Families are bound together by a lot of things: DNA, love, shared stories, lots of great-grandmothers and the occasional rash. Traditions and rituals are also an integral part of where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. Their comforting sameness provides security and continuity among family members and between the generations. The great thing about these two connectors is that you are never too young –and it is never too late — to create a tradition.

Enter a six-year-old with an active sense of affirmation. It all started with a phone call that she ended by saying: “Love you! See you! Bye bye!” There was no doubt she was ending the call and was covering all her bases.

The recipient of this gracious goodbye was a travelling parent who repeated the story at home within earshot of its author. Kids know when parents are amused and if it worked once, it bears repeating. “Love you! See you! Bye bye!” became her standard closing and it quickly rippled across the whole family to replace any other kind of goodbye.

Another great thing that connects families is code talk, those magic words that are significant only to the people involved and deliciously unintelligible to those outside that special circle. It wasn’t long before “Love you! See you! Bye bye!” had become so integral to family conversations that it took the inevitable short cut.

LYSYBB (lis see bee bee) popped out of the same six-year-old’s mouth a few months later and instantly usurped the power of it’s long-version companion. LYSYBB. It began turning up everywhere, in phone conversations, on e-mails, at the end of text messages. It’s been almost 15 years since LYSYBB became a family ritual and with every sign-off, it affirms what we already knew: we are a family connected by loving reminders.

As the world whirls by at frightening speed, we communicate more and connect less. Technology brings us shortcuts to all our daily tasks and burdens us with the feel of less time. We expect more, want it faster, and obsess over life’s imagined requirements. For us, LYSBB may be shortalk but it still brands our family exchanges and has become a tradition that slows us down for just that instant in remembering there is someone on the other end of the conversation who will love us in return.